Yesterday, I saw two lads of about 13 near the stream which runs through the park. There was also a medium-sized black and white cat in the vicinity. When I was still some distance away, one of the boys appeared to throw a stone at the cat. The cat jumped and moved further away from the boys, but not far. The boys moved to the same area.

As I approached the scene (close enough to have a good view, but not to intervene), the same boy appeared to throw a second stone at the cat, who moved again.I don't think he hit the cat, but that's hardly the point.

Normally, I would have just ignored it and walked on, but it made me really angry, so I told them to leave the cat alone. The boy who had thrown the stone, claimed that he had been throwing stones into the water, but, as I pointed out to him, if this was the case, why did they follow the cat, when they could have stayed where they were to throw stones? To which he had no answer.

In the end, I told them again to leave the cat alone.

I realise that if it had any sense, the cat would have got well away after the first incident I witnessed, but that's hardly the point! At best it was totally unnecessary teasing of a lovely animal for their own amusement.

I suppose too that I should be grateful that the boys didn't give me a mouthful of abuse (or worse) for telling them off. They're probably good lads at heart.

I actually know the cat, as it belongs to one of my neighbours, but that's also irrelevant, because I would have felt the same about any animal being treated in that way.

_________________''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

These situations are always difficult to deal with, aren't they? Well done you for intervening, though, and let's hope you're right that they were merely being thoughtless and might not do it again. My parents' neighbour used to consider it fine to throw stones at any cat he saw in his garden - I suspect his aim was good enough to not actually hit the cat, but again, that's not the point, and I have the impression he wouldn't have been that bothered if it had happened. The Good Old Days, eh?

Just replied to an email inviting me for (yet another!) job interview. The person answered and to my embarrassment, I saw a very obvious typo on the email I'd sent him.

Oh well, nothing I can do about it. I don't usually make mistakes like that and I hope attention to detail isn't one of the requirements for the job - but it probably is, as it seems standard for office jobs these days.

_________________''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

One of the best things about gmail is that you can set it to wait up to 30 seconds after pressing 'send' so that you can actually catch and 'undo' the send if you spot something just as you send your carefully - or not so carefully! - constructed email off into the ether. That has saved my blushes on many occasions!

Hope they just take it as your being human, rather than it stymieing your application, Carol!

_________________to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. e.e.cummingshttp://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

Go into settings, it's about the 5th item on the general tab - something like 'enable undo send' and a drop box to set up to 30 seconds of delay

_________________to be nobody but yourself - in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. e.e.cummingshttp://stitchwords.blogspot.co.uk

One of the best things about gmail is that you can set it to wait up to 30 seconds after pressing 'send' so that you can actually catch and 'undo' the send if you spot something just as you send your carefully - or not so carefully! - constructed email off into the ether. That has saved my blushes on many occasions!

Hope they just take it as your being human, rather than it stymieing your application, Carol!

Thanks for that tip, Ruth, as I do use gmail. I had seen that undo button, but never tried to use it. Unfortunately, in this case, I didn't spot the error until too late, but it's very useful to know - and worth double checking on important emails.

_________________''He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose." Jim Elliot

I feel as if I'm sinking under a pile of stuff that I cannot get done because I'm trapped at work all the time and you cannot get stuff done at weekends or in the evenings. One place used to do an 8-10 or 4-6 two hour slot, but no, apparently that is no longer offered, and it's either 10-12, 12-2 or 2-4. Same with everything. It's all just got too much today. I know that having a meltdown and crying doesn't help, but I'm not sure what does.

Hugs to everyone who needs them! Alison, how are you doing? Sorry things aren't [or weren't] going well. Um, bit of a scare today when hospital calls me asking where x is as test results are back and they need to see him urgently. After establishing he was not at home and not picking up, eventually I heard that he was... at the hospital where they'd ask him to stay for tests.

Minor grump - I started work late today, so first thing this mornign I got up and washed the floor, then sat down to read while the floor dried. With a rather absorbing book I didn't notice what was going on, and looked up five minutes later to see that the cat had just brought in a newly killed pigeon, which was now dripping feathers and blood all over my clean floor!

(The cats know that if they bring in anything alive I rescue it, so they now kill their victims and then bring them home to play with.)

I didn't have time to do it again before I left for work, so now I have to look forward to cleaning the floor again when I get home - and having started late, I also finish late, and won't get home until around 9:00 this evening, when the last thing I want to do is start cleaning the floor.

And when I got to work my sandal strap tore, so now I am limping around in urgent need of a new pair of sandals - which I may buy tonight, thus getting home even later, or may put off until tomorrow, hoping that they don't disintergrate entirely on the way home.

_________________... Anna made up her mind for once and all that there must be something about the Chalet School that affected all concerned with it with mild insanity!

Oh dear, Miriam - sympathies over all of that! My warning to any departing cat is "Take care; see you later; no live prey please!"

My own feeling would be to deal with the sandals first, as that's a safety risk for you, and you don't want a ricked ankle (or more) to add to your woes - but only you can say which is best for you. Good luck anyway.

My whinge is about a post I've just seen on Facebook which has made me out of reason cross. I guess it's supposed to be "inspirational" but it just inspired in me a desire to smack in the mouth whoever came up with it. Anyway, it said "if you can't handle stress you can't handle success". What a f*****g stupid thing to say! Define stress!The stress I felt 20-odd years ago being in a menial, dead-end job, earning minimum wage, being badly bullied every day and getting no support at home was VERY different to the stress I felt a few years later at college, trying to get 2000 word essays written the night before they were due in. That was a good kind of stress that urged me to do my very best. The first was debilitating and led to depression.

*and breathe*Don't ask me why I always left essays till the last minute, I just did, ok?

People post some utter rubbish on social media, especially those things that you click on and share.

*Sympathises.* I was the sort of kid who got stressed over every mark and absolutely *had* to get straight As at GCSE and A-level and a first-class degree. I did. It never caused me any health problems. Fast forward 20 years, demoralising job, nasty atmosphere due to office politics, and I ended up on anti-anxiety medication and having to have three months off sick.

But I try to ignore a lot of the stuff I see, especially stuff about political and "ethical" issues from people who seem to think that anyone who disagrees with them is the devil incarnate. Social media is great, but some of the stuff on it can get very annoying.

Ugh, I am so with you on that, RubyGates! People just don't think through whether these things that sound so lovely are actually true or whether they might be hurtful to the people they're not true for. I confess I have taken to challenging the stupider ones and pointing out their sparkling errors in logic. I've even removed a couple of people who seem to post nothing else from my friends list... I just can't be doing with it. Happily, most of the people I actually like are pretty sensible about such things .

_________________"And I'm sure there was blood in the gutter from somebody's head, or else it was the sunset in a puddle."

A lot of those things on FB are like the old-fashioned chain letters and should be deleted at once. I particularly hate the ones that say something like: We'll see who cares - if you share this photo of a sad baby/dying mother/tortured animal whatever.

My whinge for today - and ongoing - is a pretty 1st world whinge in that I'm having to engage with social media in a much more concentrated way than occasional posts on Facebook. New publisher has it in the contract that the author is part of the promotional process and this means being hearty, and jolly, and tweeting, and sharing, wanting people to follow my FB Author page, my Goodreads page and join me all over the place and generally being needy all over the internet.I'm fairly cheerful by nature and of course I'm glad to have another book coming out (14th November, folks - The House at Ladywell) but it's cringe-making and almost makes me long for the ancient former publisher whose attitude smacked of - Here's a lovely new quill pen and some parchment. (No wonder they ceased trading...)#bit ranty, sorry #not hinting

My whinge for today - and ongoing - is a pretty 1st world whinge in that I'm having to engage with social media in a much more concentrated way than occasional posts on Facebook. New publisher has it in the contract that the author is part of the promotional process and this means being hearty, and jolly, and tweeting, and sharing, wanting people to follow my FB Author page, my Goodreads page and join me all over the place and generally being needy all over the internet.

That's very tedious Nicky. Maybe you should point out to your publisher that there are quite a few of us out there who are firmly put off by any attempt to involve us in social media (other than something like the CBB or the osprey chat stream I follow ) and who might regard such publicity methods as a good reason not to buy the book!

(I am nevertheless much looking forward to reading it - as long as you promise to make no attempt to steer me towards your facebook page )

You're pretty safe on that score, Gil! I have to do it, to some extent, because I signed the contract and I don't want to end up in detention with a dunce's cap. But it's so alien to the way so many of us were brought up - be polite, don't be pushy, don't blow your own trumpet. Still, upwards and onwards, and we can't all be Josephine M Bettany and have instant best-sellers without doing a hand's turn, publicity-wise!